Speedy Snacks.

Well, its been a hectic week in our house. My 8 year old has developed a passion for singing and dancing and as a result he's enrolled in all sorts of out of school activities. This doesn't really leave much time for foodie experiments.
So, the quest for this week was quick meals or snacks for days when you don't really feel like standing in the kitchen for hours peeling and chopping.
I have tried some of the prepacked stuff that our local health food shops have to offer but they're usually chock full of salt or other such preservative nastiness. Not nice.
So as usual I've been dabbling with bits and pieces and I've come up with two quick snack like dishes that could also be used as side dishes.

Orgran Risoni is wonderful stuff. Admittedly I only remember it exists when it appears in the bargain bin of the health food shop but that doesn't take the shine off how good I've found it. I've made quite a few things with it, including paella and a tuna rice salad ( tastes just as nice cold). What I've found it most useful for, this week is savoury rice. My lot love savoury rice and cous cous which usually leaves me abit stuck for what to have myself. But I boiled up some Risoni and mixed it with mushrooms fried in olive oil and garlic and it was gorgeous. There really is no end to the different stuff you can add to it, its definitely a good store cupboard buy.
 The same can't be said for the packet Gluten Free pasta in sauce you can find in the supermarkets and health food shops. I've tried several different sorts and they've all been far too salty. Now I make my own.
I accidently discovered an easy way to make pasta in sauce while on holiday last year.
It was the last day of the holiday and I was trying to use up the food we had taken with us. I put on a pot of gluten free pasta to boil and I let it cook for too long so that there was only a little water left (oops!). Then hit by inspiration I just started throwing things into the pan and came up with this:

Cheese and Tomato Pasta

About 50-100g of Gluten free pasta

3 tablespoons of Tomato Puree

Half a vegetable stock cube or 1 teaspoon of boullion powder

half a diced onion

1/2 teaspoon of mixed herbs

1 large garlic clove

any veg or meat you might want to add, the meat should be already cooked.

handful of grated cheese, any will be good but Parmesan is really nice.


1. Cook the pasta in the usual way with plenty of water. Once the pasta is tender drain 2/3 of the water away, whats left will make the sauce.
2. Put the pan back on the heat but turn it down. Add the stock cube/ boullion, tomato puree , onions, garlic and herbs and stir well.
3. Cook gently for a few minutes stirring occasionally to stop it sticking.
4. Next add any veg or meat you'd like to the mixture.
5. Continue to cook until the sauce is thick then add the cheese, stir well and serve.

Unfortunately, this is a dish that needs to be eaten straight away. It doesn't keep very well and it can't be frozen.
ENJOY!!

It's all about the dough!

Like everyone else, I'm feeling the financial squeeze. Although this month its more like the financial bear hugging crush. So with money on my mind I decided to avoid buying gluten free bread and to perfect my one breadmaking recipe instead. Its a recipe i found on the internet a few years ago for a rice flour bread.
 My first attempt with it, many months ago, left me with a slab of what can only be described as partially edible glutenfree rock. To quote Neil from the Young ones, it was "Heaveeeee man!". But as times weren't quite so tight then I left that recipe at the back of my book and decided to go on a quest to find a decent supermarket loaf that didn't disintegrate when toasted ( I'm still looking!).
I've recently discovered that as well as the usual gluten free bread brands, Warburtons have now jumped on the special diet bandwagon with their own brand of gluten free breads. "Brilliant!" I said to myself, an actual baker that's making Gluten free bread. May be I'll finally be able to have toast and marmite that doesn't turn into cat litter sized pieces the second it leaves the toaster. So the next time I was in Tesco's (or Fiasco's as my friend Jo has renamed it), I made a point of looking for it. Well, I think you can guess the next bit........
I found it...... and I nearly died of indignation. £2.89!!!!! for a 200g loaf. I think the other shoppers in Tesco thought I was a mad person and I'm sure I was heard in the next county when I almost screamed " HOW MUCH?????".
It does beg the question, if the alternative flours they use are cheaper than high grade wheat ( most of them are) then how can they get away with such extortionate prices?
Well, it certainly spurred me on to re-try that recipe I'd left gathering dust on my book shelf. With renewed determination I tried again.
This time, i put in more liquid, added abit of cornmeal to give it abit more of a bread like taste ( it was abit yeasty before) and I mixed it by hand before putting the dough in the bread maker. I switched from the medium crust setting that the recipe suggested and I set it to light crust.And I abandoned the idea of Rice flour all together in favour of Doves Farm G.F Bread Flour.
Then, like a moron, i watched it through the window in the bread maker. Yes I'm mental, but I love toast and marmite, so that kinda says it all.
Success!!! It rose twice as high as before and it felt more like bread than my last attempt. You couldn't make sarnies with it though, its just not that kind of loaf but when you toast it, its the closest thing I've had to traditional bread in a long time :)
Its good base recipe to mess with and tweak to your hearts desire. Its measured in cups  because its an American recipe. i picked up a set of measuring cups from the Pound shop but you could just use the one that comes with your bread maker.

Toasting Bread

1 Large egg

2 cups of milk ( I used cows milk but I expect it would work with any kind)

3 teaspoons of oil

3/4 teaspoon of salt

1 Tablespoon of Honey/Golden syrup/Agave Nectar/Sweet Freedom Syrup

2 cups of Gluten free Bread flour

1/2 Cup of fine Cornmeal

1/4 cup of Hot Tap warm water ( I filled the cup from the hot tap just before it got scorching)

1 sachet of bread making yeast.

1. In a large bowl, beat the egg and milk together then add all of the other ingredients in list order.

2. Mix until it forms a sticky dough adding more warm water if necessary.

3. pour the dough into the bread maker. Set to 1/12lb loaf, light crust , Basic setting.

4.when finished open the lid on the bread maker and let the bread stand for 10 minutes, before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Enjoy!!

Cake cravings!!

I have been so bad this week. I've had such terrible sugar cravings that avoiding the chocolates left over from Christmas has been very difficult. In an attempt to avoid falling off the food wagon and giving myself a food hangover I've made a couple of my standby recipes, the ones designed to satisfy my cravings with minimal damage and only a small dose of guilt.
Banana bread was something I made regularly with my mum when I was a kid. It was  the best way to use up squishy bananas and the blacker the skins the sweeter the fruit, that way you can get away with leaving out the sugar. I put dried apricots in mine as well to give abit of sweetness. Not the nasty bright orange ones though, they're just unnatural, nasty things covered in sulphites guaranteed to give you a jippy stomach (Bleugh!).

 Brilliant Banana Bread

8 oz Rice Flour ( sometimes if I run out of rice flour I use doves farm gluten free self raising instead)

4oz vegetable margarine

2 eggs

1 teaspoon baking powder ( don't forget to add this, I forgot once and ended up with a spongy biscuit!)

5 or 6 dried apricots, chopped quite small (unsulphured, I buy crazy jack organic ones, expensive but worth it)

3 tablespoons of sweetened soya milk, you might need abit more depending on the consistency of the mixture, don't add to much though or it'll take ages to cook in the middle.

Set the oven to gas mark 4 or the electric equivalent, and grease and line a 2lb loaf tin.


1. Sieve the flour and baking powder into a bowl.

2. Add the margarine and mix together using chopping motions until you get rough breadcrumb sized pieces.

3. Next stir in the apricots followed by the two eggs.

4. Finally add the soya milk and stir really well to mix thoroughly. Pour into your loaf tin and bake for between 45 mins and an hour. Test the middle with a skewer or cocktail stick to check that the middle is cooked.

5. Turn out onto a rack to cool. This cake is perfect for freezing, that's if it lasts long enough!!

I spread margarine or fruit spread on mine, it is very moreish though so expect it to disappear very quickly!!

My other guilty pleasure this week has been Bakewell tart. Its one of those things that I didn't realise I missed until I couldn't have it anymore. I found a recipe for it in a book I borrowed from a friend of mine but it was quite bland to be honest so I fiddled with it. Now I can make it with only a little sugar by increasing the amount of almond essence that I put in the frangipan mixture and by spreading morello cherry fruit spread in the pastry case first. The original recipe didn't incorporate any raspberry or cherry filling and I'll be honest the chickpea flour pastry it featured tasted like frozen peas!!! I make it with gluten free flour and a touch of mixed spice, its much nicer. It can be hard adapting recipes sometimes, especially when you have quite a few intolerance's but its not impossible you just have to persevere through the disasters.

Well, i'm back on the wagon now, lets hope i can spend the next week avoiding "junk" and cracking on with some new foodie experiences.

Adventures in Soup!

Well, I started the week determined to try loads of new soup recipes but I was struck down with the lurgy again and I really didn't feel like doing much. I did manage to have a bash at couple of easy recipes and I was quite surprised at just how tasty homemade vegetable soup can be.

My first soup of the week was one I've been making myself for years.I loved lentil soup when my kids were little, it was a meal in can. Quick tasty and cheap. The idea of making my own didn't really occur to me then, it was just a quick meal and the image of me chopping ingredients and faffing about with dried lentils didn't really appeal. That was until the price of lentil soup, like alot of my favourite stuff, went through the roof and my wages went through the floor. My hubby, then boyfriend,  gave me a new cook book with the tastiest sounding lentil soup recipe in it that I just had to have a bash. Needless to say I loved the result  but the kids decided they didn't like lentils anymore and so its a freezer filler I make for when they're all having something i can't.
Its really filling and makes 3 portions for the fridge or freezer.

Spicy Lentil and Sweetcorn Soup.

2 tablespoons of olive oil

100g of red lentils, rinsed and put to one side.

1 onion, diced

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

1 pint of vegetable stock, you can adjust how much you use according to how thick you want the soup to be.

1 tsp of curry powder, I use chaat masala mix its just spicy enough without being too hot.

2 tablespoons of tomato puree, you can add more if you like tomato flavouring.

half a tin of sweetcorn.

In a large saucepan heat the oil and gently fry the onion and garlic until they begin to soften.

Add the lentils and fry for a couple of minutes stirring all the time. Next add the curry powder, the heat brings out the flavour before you add the liquid.

Next add the stock and tomato puree and stir really well. Bring to the boil and then simmer until the lentils are soft and the soup is quite thick. Finally add the sweetcorn and heat through.

I love this with some fresh from the oven part baked gluten free rolls like the ones made by dietary specials.

My second adventure involved Minestrone soup. I bought a slow cooker a few months ago and I'll admit my repertoire at the time was casserole or stew. So, I bought a cheap slow cooker book for inspiration and came across a recipe for minestrone. Normally I'd never be tempted to tackle a childhood favourite for  fear that it would ruin my fond food memories but I decided to relent just this once.
Off to the shops i went for the several hundred weight of vegetables the recipe called for and I cracked on with preparing for my first slow cooker soup attempt. I was quite surprised to note that this minestrone recipe calls for bacon!! I don't ever remember there being any bacon in the minestrone my mum used to give me, but as my Hubby pointed out that's because it came from a packet.

It took ages to chop all the veg really small and there was a scary moment when I didn't think my slow cooker pot was big enough but the resulting soup was so tasty that even my caveman-meat-loving Hubby enjoyed it! Needless to say it was snapped up so fast none of it actually made it to the freezer, never mind, maybe next time!!

Its been a while!

Well, i'm ashamed to say that i've been working so hard i've not too much time for cooking! But after spending most of christmas eating junk i'm back on the good food wagon again. The recipe books have come out and i'm going to make more interesting use of my slow cooker. This week i'm concentrating on Soups and as my current work buddy is a vegetarian, i thought i might go with as many different varieties of veggie soup as i can.
I' ll keep you posted ;)